The Tattler
by BouquetOfScoroses
Summary: For years, Scorpius has been Rose's best friend, confidante, and above all: her tattler. Who else would keep Hogwarts' golden girl informed about the student population of Hogwarts? But when something that could put Rose in danger is about to come to light, will Scorpius keep a secret to save his future or will he risk everything for the girl he loves? Not Cursed Child compliant.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

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"We can't be losers anymore, Scorpius." Rose said as we sat in the library after classes, her red hair pulled back and her reading glasses sitting low on her nose.

"What are you talking about?" I ask.

She let out an exasperated sigh, and pulled her glasses off. "I'm talking about the fact that my cousin Dominique, aka little miss popular here at Hogwarts is graduating in two weeks. And right now, there's no one to take her place."

I bark out a laugh. "Are you suggesting that _we_ take her place?"

"That is exactly what I'm suggesting."

"Ha, yeah, I'm sure that would be a brilliant idea if we weren't, you know, total nerds." I say, gesturing to the pile of books in front of us.

"Come on, Scorp, don't you get sick of this? This hiding out in the library because people laugh at us? Studying, even though our final exams are over and we have absolutely no reason to? We don't go anywhere-"

"Speak for yourself, hun. I don't know about you, but I have been invited to one whole party this summer." I say. Her eyes light up.

"Really? That's the first step, Scorp! You get in with them, and…" She trails off.

"And what, Rose? How in the world do you plan on becoming the most popular and sought after girl at Hogwarts in one summer?" I ask.

She's quiet for a minute, and I look back down at my book, thinking the conversation is over. But then I feel her hand on my wrist.

"I've got it."

"What?"

"They like you. They being Chelsie Hawk, Knox Jordan, Coretta Sudworth, and Lizzy Darrell." She says, naming the group in seventh that had been friendly toward me for some reason and invited me to their summer party.

"Yes, and?"

"You can be my eyes and ears! At least, until I'm popular enough to not be invisible to the general population of Hogwarts." She says.

"You're not invisible. I see you. Albus and Sadie see you." I interject, and she rolls her eyes.

"I said the general population, not my best friend, my cousin, and my cousin's unrequited crush." She says scathingly.

"Okay, fine. I still don't understand how me being on speaking terms with that group will help you become popular." I say, crossing my arms and leaning back in my chair.

"Secrets, Scorpius, secrets. If you can get anything on them, even if it's just some silly little habit they have, then you can tell me and I can use it to climb my way to the top." She said. She was starting to look a little bit scary.

"So...you want me to tattle on the popular kids? Isn't that what primary schoolers do?" I say, and give her a look that she's seen many times. The look says: "Give up while you're ahead."

Her look back says: "Hell no."

"Essentially. I just need a little bit to knock them down and get up there where they are. It might take a while, but think about it, Scorpius. Every little step you take getting closer to them, is another step that I can take up the social ladder." She says.

She's so passionate about it, it's hard to stay rational about this. "Okay, one little flaw in your master plan: they're going to figure out so fast that I'm the one leaking all of their little secrets to the school."

She's shaking her head. "No, they won't. Tell me if these names sound familiar: Braiden Fletcher, Jayna Denzil, Derek Michaelson, Keeleigh Peyton, Kalysta Adam, and Liza Ianson."

"Vaguely."

"Those are the ones on the edges of the popularity circle." She grabs a spare bit of parchment and in the middle writes down Chelsie, Knox, Coretta, and Lizzy. She then draws a circle around them and writes Braiden, Jayna, Derek, Keeleigh, Kalysta, and Liza on the circle. "They're right here. Close enough to be trusted with secrets, but not close enough that they can't be persuaded to share them. Get to them, you get the secrets, and none of them-" She pointed to the four in the middle. "Ever find out that it was you. And then after so many secrets get leaked, they start to slowly be removed from the circle and we move in." She drew an X through Keeleigh. "We go for her first."

"Why the hell are you not in Slytherin?" I ask her, incredibly impressed by her thought process, even if it was a bit cruel.

"I learned from the best. The best being Victoire. But ignoring that, back to the diagram. Keeleigh Peyton." She says.

"Right. Why do I go for her first?" I say, falling into her enthusiasm and plans.

"She's an airhead. She used to date James and he said she had the biggest mouth. You spend one night talking to her, she'll tell you everything she knows. She's a gossip. And her main gossip target is-" She draws a line to the inner four. "Coretta Sudworth."

"Okay, so I go for Keeleigh and get secrets about Coretta?" I ask.

"Exactly. Then we work from there. And by sixth year, we're sitting peacefully on our happy little asses, queen and king of the school." She says, folding the parchment up and sticking it in the inner pocket of her bag.

"Wait, what? Sixth year? I thought this was your plan for immediate popularity!" I exclaim.

"Well, no! It's going to take some time. But it will be worth it in the end. You'll see." She says. She pushes her chair back and stands up. "I'm late for a chess game with Hugo. I'll see you in the common room later. Start trying to talk to Keeleigh! Bye!" She pats my shoulder and saunters out of the library. I pinch the bridge of my nose and then lay my head down on top of my book.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

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A/N: Welcome to my new fic, The Tattler. I've been working on this one for a while, trying to figure out where I want it to go. It's inspired by a plot point in _Places No One Knows_ by Brenna Yovanoff, mixed with a few other things, but the story is all mine. I only took some inspiration from the stories. I've got some interesting things planned for this story, so we'll see how it works out. As always, please review and let me know what you think! This story isn't anywhere near complete, so any suggestions for things you'd like to see are appreciated as well! I'll try to get next chapter up soon!


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

* * *

 **7TH YEAR**

"Caelan Clifford bought a pregnancy potion in Hogsmeade yesterday." I say to Rose as we're sitting together in the Heads' dormitory. How Rose still managed to make Head Girl with me as Head Boy is beyond my knowledge, but I guess that's her genetics at work. The work hard, play harder mentality. I just can't believe I'm still doing this three years later.

"Interesting. She's not really a threat right now, but I'll note it for later use." Rose said, pulling a spare piece of parchment out and writing it. "Anything else?"

As much as I hate doing this, I won't give up these nights in the dormitory for anything. It's the only time I feel like I see the real Rose Weasley, with her hair up and her glasses on, in Gryffindor colored flannel pajamas.

"I heard a really stupid rumor that Albus was the father." I say, trying to stifle my laughter.

Rose laughed out loud. "Obviously they've never seen that he only has eyes for Sadie Chase."

"I haven't heard any credible rumors, but I'll let you know when I do. I think that's all for tonight." I tell her, and she nods her head.

"Good, Tobias is going to be here soon anyway." She says, putting away her notes and pulling down her hair.

"Lovely." I say and roll my eyes when she's looking elsewhere.

Tobias Huxley. Rose's oh-so-wonderful boyfriend, king to her queen. Her fairytale prince who is everything and more, and she never knew love until she met such a sweet, sensitive soul. He "challenges her intellect".

So, in other words, the guy's an argumentative dick.

"Isn't Eleanor coming by too?" She asks.

"Yeah, I guess she is. She usually comes by every night." I say.

Eleanor Conner. My oh-so-wonderful girlfriend. She isn't the brightest of girls, but she's sweet. Rose set me up with her. Probably so she didn't feel guilty about replacing me with Tobias.

I sit there as she runs around, changing into something "sexier" (her words) and brushing her hair to make it have a "rough, tousled look" (her words). I was just in joggers and a t-shirt, so when I heard the timid knock on the door, I went to answer it.

"Hi, love." I say, giving Eleanor a hug as a greeting.

"Hi. I just came to say goodnight, I didn't get to see you much today." She says, her hands clasped in front of her blue jumper.

"I was in Hogsmeade all day, you wouldn't have been able to find me anyway." I tell her, and then we both pause. I bend down to kiss her on the cheek, and then squeeze her hand. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." She says, and then turns away to walk back to the Hufflepuff common room.

I turn back and Rose is staring at me, a toothbrush hanging in her mouth. "What?"

"Is that how you kiss your girlfriend goodnight?" She asks, muffled from the toothpaste.

"Yes, what's wrong with it?"

"Nothing, I just expected a little more...passion. I mean, when Tobias kisses me goodnight, he really-"

"Okay, nope, I don't need to hear what goes on when you and Tobias kiss goodnight. I'm going to my room now so you can have your little lovers' tryst. Goodnight, Rose." I say, walking towards my room.

"Goodnight, Scorpius." She says, and goes to finish getting ready. Tobias is supposed to be here at eight, she told me earlier.

I lay in bed reading until nine thirty when I hear our dormitory door open and Tobias's rough voice. "Hey."

"You're late." I hear Rose say icily.

"Only a few minutes." He says dismissively, and I know already that he's reaching for her waist to pull her to him.

"A few minutes? Tobias, you are an hour and a half late. Where the hell were you?" I hear Rose whisper-screech. I know she's trying to be quiet to not wake me up, but these walls are thin and I have gotten very good at eavesdropping over the years.

"God, Rose, calm down. I was with Myranda." I hear him say, and I close my eyes and smile, because he just got himself into some deep water with Rose.

"Myranda Marshall?" I hear her say, trying to conceal her anger.

"Yes, Rose, I've been friends with her since we were like, five, remember?" Tobias answers.

"I know that. But you know how I feel about her." She says, and I can practically hear his confusion because, no, he probably doesn't know how she feels about Myranda Marshall.

Myranda Marshall was one of Rose's friends when she first started getting popular, before she met Tobias, after we had knocked out all of the previous top kids in the school. She confided in Rose, telling her all about her crush on Tobias, her childhood friend. Rose listened intently, only hearing future ammunition. So when Rose kept getting more and more popular, Myranda didn't felt danger. So she tried to put Rose back in her place. Myranda tried to dig up secrets about Rose

Myranda Marshall was the first girl Rose destroyed.

She made Myranda's reputation so bad, she lost all of her friends except Tobias and her brother. And then Rose dated the brother, but that's another story. Myranda was reduced to what Rose used to be: an invisible nobody. No one knew who really did it to her except for me and Rose. And we were determined to keep it that way.

"Whatever, Rose. I know you think I was cheating on you or something, because you always freak out like this when I'm out late with a girl, but I'm not cheating. What kind of guy is dumb enough to pick the childhood friend to cheat with?" He says. Rose is silent, and right now, even though we're not quite on the same wavelength anymore, I know she's thinking about the same person I am.

Knox Jordan.

Knox Jordan was stupid enough to pick the childhood friend.

 ** _4TH YEAR_**

 _I take a deep breath and step over to the Hufflepuff table. I'm about to get in way over my head._

" _Mind if I sit here?" I ask the perky brunette sitting at the Hufflepuff table. I feel awkward not sitting with my house, but there's no rule against it and there are others doing the same thing. I've just never felt the need to sit anywhere besides the Ravenclaw table. Next to Rose._

" _I'm sorry, do I know you?" Keeleigh asks as I stand behind her._

" _Scorpius? Scorpius Malfoy?" I say uncertainly._

" _Oh, you're the Malfoy kid! I've just never seen you around, I thought you were a first year when I heard someone talking about you!" She exclaimed._

" _Yeah, no, fourth year. I hang out with Rose Weasley a lot." I reply._

" _Who?" She asks. This girl is so daft._

" _Rose Weasley. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger's daughter?" She stares blankly. I sigh. "James Potter's cousin."_

" _Oh! That bookish girl who used to trail behind James all the time? I remember I said something about her when we were dating and James threatened to give me a permanent unibrow if I said anything about her again. I honestly forgot she even went here. Why aren't you over there with her?" She asked._

 _I glanced over to where Rose sat eating breakfast with her cousins at the Gryffindor table. As I watched, I saw people come and talk over her to her cousins. She looked so lonely. I set my face into indifference before I lose my nerve and go back sit with her. Time to turn on some Malfoy charm._

 _I shrug at Keeleigh. "Guess I wanted a change of pace. She can be a little boring, you know?"_

 _She smiles. "I can see that. Yeah, sure, you can sit next to me."_

 _She scoots over a little on the bench and I slide in. Filling my plate, I chat with her about nothing important while she waited for her friends. "Ugh. Well, it's been nice talking to you."_

 _I look up when she says this abruptly. I see Coretta Sudworth gesturing for her to come over to the Gryffindor table with them._

" _You don't have to go sit with them." I say._

" _Coretta's a bitch, she'll ignore me all day if I don't. God, I wish Lizzy could see that."_

" _Lizzy?"_

" _She and Coretta are best friends, but she sure as hell doesn't treat Lizzy like a best friend."_

" _What are you talking about?"_

" _I mean, if you consider shagging your best friend's boyfriend acting like a best friend, then she's the best friend a girl could ask for."_

" _You mean Knox Jordan?"_

" _You know who Lizzy's dating?"_

" _I mean, they've been the golden couple of the school for the past two years, haven't they?"_

" _Yeah, I guess. Coretta's been sleeping with him for like at least six months now. But you didn't hear that from me." She looks over at Coretta, still waving. "I've got to go. See you later, Scorpion!"_

" _It's Scorpius." I correct half-heartedly as she skips over to the Gryffindor tables and I walk back to the Ravenclaw table, Rose joining me shortly after._

" _So?"_

" _That was unbelievably easy. I was talking to her about my Potions essay from last month and she just went off on a tangent about Coretta Sudworth." I say, not believing how easy it was for me to get a secret out of Keeleigh._

" _And? What did she say?" She asks eagerly._

" _Let's go to the library, I'll tell you there." We both stand up and walk out of the Great Hall, and walk straight to the library. When we get there, Rose puts her books down on the table._

" _Okay, tell me. What did she say?"_

" _So you know how Lizzy Darrell is dating Knox Jordan?" I ask._

" _Of course. They've been dating for two years."_

" _Well, apparently, Coretta and Knox have been shagging behind Lizzy's back for at least six months. Their families apparently went on Christmas holiday together and they started then."_

" _Brilliant! I mean, poor Lizzy, Coretta's her best friend, but this is brilliant." She says._

" _Rose, are you sure about this? I mean, this is really personal stuff. I really don't think we should be spreading this around the school." I ask, apprehensive._

" _Think about this way, Scorp. If it were you, and your girlfriend was cheating on you with your best friend, would you want someone to tell you?"_

 _I thought about it. Lizzy did deserve to know if Knox was cheating on her, but did she deserve to find out this way? From a gossip chain going around the school?_

" _One person, Rose. You tell one person, but that's it. Then if they decide it should spread, then fine, that's their problem." I concede. She smiles._

" _Lizzy would want to know, Scorpius. I'll be back. By tomorrow, this will be all over." She says, then she scampers out of the library. I shake my head and sit down to read._

" _You're a BITCH!" Rose and I hear as we're eating breakfast the next day. The entire Great Hall looks over to the Gryffindor table where Lizzy Darrell stands, her fists clenched and her eyes filled with tears._

" _Excuse me?" Coretta asks as she puts down her fork._

" _I know about Knox, you little slag." Lizzy says angrily._

" _What about Knox?" Coretta asks calmly._

" _Don't act like that, Cori. You and I both know what's been going on." Lizzy is seething with anger._

" _Liz, I have no idea what you're talking about."_

" _I'm talking about you shagging my boyfriend behind my back!"_

" _Who told you that?"_

" _I heard it from a freaking second year! It's all over the school. How could you?"_

 _Coretta takes a deep breath. "Lizzy-"_

" _No, I don't care anymore, Coretta! I thought we were done with this after fourth year. You promised!"_

" _How could you, Lizzy? You knew I fancied him, and you went out with him anyway. How do you think that made me feel? We've been best friends for thirteen years, and I told you how I felt about him."_

" _That doesn't give you an excuse to shag him behind my back!" Lizzy nearly screeches._

" _Well, you sure as hell weren't."_

" _Excuse me?"_

" _Someone had to shag your boyfriend, you obviously weren't." Coretta says coldly._

" _What I do or don't do with my boyfriend is my business. We're done, Cori." Lizzy says, turning on her heel, and walking briskly away._

" _Fine, Lizzy, walk away. I'll just be with your boyfriend, we'll be in my bed if you need us!" Coretta calls out._

 _The next thing the Great Hall hears is an echoing slap as Lizzy's open palm made contact with Coretta's face. The force of the slap knocked Coretta out of her seat and onto the floor. Lizzy was breathing heavily and tears were streaming down her face. The Headmistress comes running over._

" _Ms. Darrell! Ms. Sudworth! Seventy points will be taken from your house, for assaulting a classmate and for shouting obscenities across the Great Hall. Now please pull yourselves together or you will be going straight to my office, the both of you."_

 _Lizzy glared at Coretta and then stalked out of the Hall, leaving Coretta and the rest of the hall in stunned silence. Rose looked at me. "Well, I didn't expect that big of a blow-up."_

" _How did you not expect that? Who did you even tell for it to get around this fast?" I ask her._

" _Dominique."_

" _You told this huge secret about the second most popular girls in school to the most popular girl in school?" I ask incredulously._

" _I had to. Who else in this entire school would listen to me besides my cousins?"_

" _So you told Dominique, and Dominique told the rest of the school. Did you tell her I told you?"_

" _No, I told her that Keeleigh said it. The goal is to take out Keeleigh, but it looks like we might knock out Lizzy or Coretta, depending on who Chelsie sides with."_

 _We both glance over to Chelsie Hawk, sitting regally at Gryffindor table. She's the undisputed leader of that group, and Rose was right when she said it depended on Chelsie's verdict._

" _I don't know who she'll side with. It's not like they were her best friend. Lizzy and Coretta were far closer than Chelsie and Lizzy or Chelsie and Coretta. Hell, she might even side with Knox. I don't know where her head is at." Rose continues._

" _I guess we'll just wait and see." I shrug, and continue eating my breakfast while Rose looks over at the table, a look in her eyes that looked something like remorse. Was she feeling bad about all of this? "Rose? Are you okay?"_

" _Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out how this will affect our plan. Like, who's going to be out of their group?" She says._

" _Ten galleons says it's Knox." I say, trying to add a little bit of fun to the mix._

" _You're on. I think it's Lizzy. They won't forgive her for a blow-up like that in front of the whole school." She says._

" _You're on." I say, and we shake hands._

 _The next morning, Rose and I walk into the Great Hall and see Chelsie, Coretta, and Lizzy sitting with their outer circle of friends at the Gryffindor table, Knox and Keeleigh nowhere in sight. I smile in satisfaction at having just ten galleons and Rose huffs in defeat. We sit down at the Ravenclaw table, and then I feel Rose tugging on my sleeve._

" _Look." She says, pointing over to the Slytherin table, where Knox sits with some of his old friends. Then I see Keeleigh at the Hufflepuff table, looking very downcast and casting occasional glances over to the rest of the group. I point to her. "Huh. I didn't expect them to figure out it was her so quickly. Oh well."_

" _Looks like someone owes me ten galleons." I say smugly._

" _Fine, you'll get it when we get back to the dorm." She's silent for a minute and then I see a small smile on her face. She whispers, "One down, three to go."_

 **7TH YEAR**

"Whatever. I'm not really in the mood to see you anymore tonight, Tobias. Goodnight." She says, and I hear her open the door.

"Fine then, Rose, be that way. God, it's like you want to find me cheating. Maybe I will since that's what you want." Tobias says and then I hear him leave.

"Go ahead, see if I care!" Rose shouts after him, and I hear her slam the door shut and then stomp to her room. Everything is quiet. He'll be back tomorrow morning to walk her to class and kiss her good morning like a good boyfriend should, like this fight never happened.

Just another typical day in the kingdom of Hogwarts queen Rose Weasley.

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A/N: As always, please review! Thanks for reading, look for the next chapter soon!


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